NBC takes the slippery slopestyle approach at Winter Games

Bob Costas wasn’t winking at the camera when he came on the air Thursday night to open NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia.

The network’s most-trusted sportscaster, in his 10th Olympics, was actually trying to use some horn-rimmed glasses as a pair of protective goggles, saying he woke up the other morning with his left eye swollen shut “and just about as red as the old Soviet flag.”

The issue should resolve itself over the weekend, he said, while adding: “If only all my issues would resolve themselves that quickly.”

Like the black eye he’s been trying to recover from after trashing the new sport of slopestyle snowboarding and skiing?

NBC’s coverage of these Winter Games, which cost them $775 million alone in rights fees, is already infected with a dozen new sports, many of them trying to appeal to a younger demographic.

Good luck with that. Recent research by Repucom shows that while the IOC is trying to be more “kid-friendly,” viewers ages 18 to 34 will continue recent trends and make up the smallest slice of the adult audience watching this event over the next two weeks — 31 percent. Those 55 and older make up 37 percent.

Still, five minutes into NBC’s first prime-time window, arriving before tonight’s Opening Ceremonies (7:30 p.m., Channel 4), involved selling this new event where women were launching themselves down the hillside like a skateboarder, glancing off ramps, rails and other radical obstacles before attempting to land without bursting any vital organs.

Kinda like the TV face-plant-heavy game show “Wipeout.”

The sport has been media fodder of late because competitors were voicing concerns about the dangerous conditions in play on the 2,000-foot-long track. So much so, one competitor from Finland said the course had gone from “gnarly” to “sketchy.”

U.S. star Shaun White already bailed out on it a few days earlier.

But if you heard NBC broadcasters Todd Harris and Todd Richards address it Thursday, you’d just guess there was nothing really to worry about.

“There’s been some problems in practice, some people did go down,” Richards said. “There were some injuries, but this is what happens when you do slopestyle. It takes days to get used to the kickers and the rails. But after some modifications done to these jumps, they were fixed over time.”

No mention of White backing out? Naw, just sit back and enjoy the carnage. In fact, think of it as NASCAR — tune in for the competition, stick around for the amazing crashes.

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Funny, but when Costas did his best at pimping this event a month ago, it came via a snidely delivered truth when asked by “Today” show host Matt Lauer about what was taking place in Sochi.

“I think the president of the IOC should be Johnny Knoxville because basically this is just ‘Jackass’ stuff that they invented and called Olympic sports,” Costas quipped. “I mean it in the kindest possible sense.”

U.S. snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg was one of those who initially responded to Costas: “We just got in the Olympics, and already we have guys who know nothing about the history of our sport telling us we’re just a bunch of jackasses? That’s pretty demeaning.”

And, of course, a misinterpretation. Costas figured most would get the “Jackass” reference as the name of the stunt-gag TV and movie franchise created by Knoxville.

All joking aside, Costas’ snarky endorsement of the sport could only help bring viewers who otherwise would not have cared or were just slightly interested going in. Same with the competitors who have their own honor to defend.

To that point, we have the Dodgers and their last World Series run in 1988 as a reference point.

Costas, hosting NBC’s coverage of the baseball championship round that year, came on prior to Game 4 as the Dodgers held a slim lead of two games to one over Oakland. Noting that a couple more key players informed manager Tommy Lasorda they weren’t able to play, Costas said on the pregame that the Dodgers, on paper, might be fielding the worst team ever for a Fall Classic.

“We’re in the clubhouse and I got really mad and for some reason, I reached up and turned on the TV,” Lasorda exaggerated — as usual — to the media after what turned out to be a crucial 4-3 victory. “And there’s Bob Costas saying, ‘This may be the worst team ever put on the field to play in a World Series game.’ My players went wild. They started screaming and yelling. They were yelling, ‘Kill Costas. Kill Costas.’

“You should give the MVP to Bob Costas.”

You’re welcome.

Slopestyle skiing starts Feb. 13. If NBC can figure out how to ramp it up any more slopestyle-related stuff through Feb. 23 — perhaps even get Lolo Jones involved in it — and Costas continuing to mock it, it could get far more watery eyes glued to the competition.

RECORD, PAUSE, DELETE

Gauging the media’s high- and low-level marks of the week, and what’s ahead:

CHANNELING RESOURCES

Less than three weeks out from the official launch of the Dodgers’ SportsNet L.A., and, for one reason or a few, Time Warner Cable, its multi-billion dollar business partner, is the only one committed to carrying it. On a channel number it still hasn’t announced. The delay in other cable and dish systems climbing aboard is both typical business practice and likely disconcerting to fans who worry themselves over how these things play out while trying to balance the pros and cons of keeping their current provider. The reported $5 per subscriber fee for SportsNet L.A. that’s been knocked around the media won’t not be confirmed by Dodger team sources, who are confident that TWC, in charge of working the distribution deals, will handle the fair value of the channel in deals they plan on cutting. If there’s any blueprint for how this will play out -- TWC’s launch of the current TWC SportsNet, which came on just weeks before the Lakers’ first regular-season game, went right up the wire with most cable and dish providers before they relented. The Dodgers have a month’s worth of spring training games starting Feb. 26, with a break for a trip to open the season in Australia on March 20. Consider missing that three-game series a real indication that a cable or dish provider is really standing its ground. After the Dodgers return for the three-game exhibition series in Southern California against the Angels, the regular season resumes Sunday, March 30, in San Diego. Regular-season games resume with two more in San Diego before the home opener against San Francisco on Friday, April 4. Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer Lon Rosen would only say the team was in “active negotiations with all distributors” and it’s an “ongoing process,” while directing fans to the www.INeedMyDodgers.com website for the time being.

You know, to make their voices heard. Because added agitation always works well in this situation. “The excitement and immense support we’ve had has been remarkable for the channel,” Rosen said. “We have faith in choosing Time Warner Cable as our partner and we know Dodger fans will be clamoring for all the content that will be offered on fair terms.” Meanwhile, Vin Scully visited the Time Warner Cable studios in El Segundo on Wednesday to meet with employees. Wherever they may be.

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGES

Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket officially brought on this week former ESPN baseball and boxing coordinating producer Nick Davis as its new executive producer. Davis’ work prior to heading off to ESPN in 2008 was as producer for nine years on Cox Cable’s San Diego Padres coverage. Tom Feuer, whose role as exec producer ended Feb. 1, finds himself in Stamford, Conn., this week to work as a producer on the “Gold Zone” live internet streaming channel for NBCOlymics.com during the Sochi Games. He said his 14-year run at FSW/PT “certainly had to be the most revolutionary time in regional sports. I was proud to play a role in what went on.” Feuer, based in Stephenson Ranch, has some work coming up as a track and field analyst for the Pac-12 Network, as well as covering the L.A. Marathon.

REBELS WITH A CLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, your Los Angeles Rebels football team. The Seattle-based Amazon Studios may make it happen, with or without a stadium built for them. Among the 10 show pilots that Amazon.com is offering to its “prime” viewers for their feedback is one called “The Rebels,” where the wife (Natalie Zea) of the owner of this pro football franchise inherits it after he dies and tries to figure out how to move on in her own ex-cheerleader kind of mindset. (Please, hold off comparisons to the old HBO series, “1st and Ten,” the Delta Burke takeoff on Georgia Frontiere that somehow lasted from 1984 to 1991). The Hollywood Reporter says Fox’s Michael Strahan and rapper/actor Ice Cube are part of the creative producers involved. Amazon Instant Video has put the half-hour pilot up on its service and it already has favorable viewer reviews mounting. If enough like it, expect to see a series ordered to be made available for viewing on the video-on-demand website. Now, if only Rebel Wilson could be cast in this thing somehow ...